Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The position of residential care staff in North Lanarkshire is less clear that that for other groups of workers because their pay arrangements, prior to Single Status in 1999, were more complicated than most and involved a lot of different shift patterns. But their pay arrangements under a new job evaluation scheme (JES) should still be fair and consistent compared to the treatment of other Council jobs in 2006, particularly in relation to the Council's traditional male jobs which appear to have fared much better than all their women colleagues. So to understand the position in North Lanarkshire clearly, I'd like to meet up with a few residential staff who have been in post since 2005/2006 and who understand the transition from the 'old' to the 'new' pay arrangements which were introduced at the time of job evaluation. I am especially interested in any paperwork and documents people may have received from the Council and indeed the trade unions because t...

Here's an interesting article from The New Yorker Magazine in which Lawrence Wright argues that the latest wave of terrorism in Iraq is all about purifying Islam in an effort to 'resolve' by violence and murder the centuries old dispute between Sunni and Shia Muslims. ISIS’S SAVAGE STRATEGY IN IRAQ POSTED BY LAWRENCE WRIGHT The Islamist storm passing through Iraq right now has been building up since the United States invaded the country in 2003, which unleashed longstanding sectarian rivalries that spilled over into civil war. But the appalling brutality currently on display, initiated by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, is more than a carnival of revenge. At the time of the American invasion, Al Qaeda was essentially defeated, scattered, and discredited all over the Muslim world. Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda then. After all, Shiites comprise about sixty per cent of the population, and some figures have Sunnis making up less than twenty per ...

Here's a good example of what passes for serious comment at The Guardian these days - an inane opinion piece by Joanna Bourke in which she argues that the British 'jihadists' who have joined the murderous terror group ISIS, may not be religious warriors but instead be driven by modern (western) forces that glamorise war. Now this is a ridiculous argument and is not supported by any evidence other than Joanna's passing reference to a number of 'shoot em up games' while saying almost nothing about the concept of 'jihad' or the religious feud between Sunni and Shia Muslims which is at the centre of events in Syria and Iraq. Interestingly, Joanna describes herself as a 'socialist feminist' and was educated at home by her Christian missionary parents which may help to explain her rather odd views and difficulty in telling the difference between a fantasy computer game and the ability to commit acts of murder and terror in the name of a twi...

The Labour Party has got itself involved in a bizarre story about giving every citizen their own owl - for reasons a I don't even begin to understand. But I think they may be on to something because eagle owls are apparently 'just the ticket' for scaring the shit out of seagulls. So this is one Labour policy that I can support without a moment's hesitation and The Independent picked up on the issue with this cartoon depicting Ed Miliband as an owl. No Sooner Said (10 September 2011) Glasgow is an amazing place. No sooner have I asked my fellow citizens for help in tackling the gull menace than a helpful reader responds with a link to The Trap Man. Now this enterprising chap has a host of fearsome bird 'decoys' - including a Large Eagle Owl. A ferocious raptor by all accounts which can be used to put the wind up some of our other  feathered friends including alien intruders such as the 'town gull' Here's what the Trap Man...

The Times reports that Muslims in Malaysia are demanding a monopoly the word God by banning Christians (as well as others presumably) from referring to 'Allah' in their spoken and written language. Now how sectarian and ridiculous is that - a government dictating to people what words they can and cannot use in their everyday lives, it's the craziest thing I've heard in a long time.    Christians in Malaysia banned from using the word ‘Allah’ Muslim activists wait for the verdict outside Malaysia's highest court in PutrajayaManan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images By Richard Lloyd Parry - The Times Christians in Malaysia have been banned from using the word “Allah”, in the culmination of a five-year legal battle that has provoked violence and religious tension in one of southeast Asia’s most ethnically diverse countries. Today the Federal Court in Putrajaya rejected an appeal by the Roman Catholic Church, and upheld a government ban on the use of the word...

Parliamentary sketch writers, more often than not, confine their observations to the goings on at Westminster, but in this example Ann Treneman from The Times shares her thoughts about Labour's plans to get fought on welfare. Fighting with relish is Ed’s messy strategy Ed Miliband gave a speech about how to make young people get out of bed and get a job Ray Tang/Rex Features By  Ann Treneman  - The Times To east London then, to see Ed Miliband give a speech aimed at saving Britain — and himself. It seemed a very un-Ed location. To get there, I walked down a street that was so hip hip that I kept looking for a hooray. Shoreditch is a place with more bike shops than pawnbrokers. I saw men wearing red velvet slippers — with tassels. There is a Banksy near by. There is, and here I rest my case, a cat café. Fighting with relish is Ed’s messy strategyEd does not really fit in here. I tried to imagine Ed in velvet-tasselled loafers. Or in a cat café. How, I wondered, woul...

I have still to decide how to vote in the independence referendum on 18 September 2014. But this latest nonsense from Ed Miliband will certainly help push me in the direction of the Yes campaign because the issue of low pay and zero hours contracts have not suddenly sprung out of nowhere which, apparently, the Labour leader would like people in Scotland to believe.  No, they were big issues during the lifetime of the last Labour Government, especially Equal Pay which has been around for years  and the fact is that Labour had an overall majority in the Westminster Parliament for 13 long years between 1997 and 2010. Yet Ed Miliband now has the cheek to suggest that things have got worse under the SNP Government at Holyrood and that we'll all go to hell in a handcart if the Scotland votes to become an independent country in September.  Now that calls for a real brass neck if you ask me. Ed Miliband to woo Scots...